A complete Bible in the Romani (Gypsy) language will roll off the presses
sometime next year, completing a joint project of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
missionaries and the United Bible Societies in the United Kingdom.

"It will be the first authorized translation of the complete Romani
Bible to appear, and it's the next logical step in the Scripture ministries
of the Fellowship's Gypsy team, said "T" Thomas, CBF missionary
based in Paris.

Printing of the complete Bible follows the first printing of a Romani
New Testament in 1995, in a joint venture of Virginia Baptists, CBF and
the UBS. That printing, funded by a $13,000 gift fromVirginia Baptists,
helped pave the way for new ministry opportunities among 40 million Gypsy
people scattered across several continents, Thomas said.

The United Bible Societies and CBF decided to move ahead with the publishing
and distribution of a complete Bible as the initial printing of 3,300 copies
of the New Testament began to run low.

Text will come from the only surviving copy of a Romani Old Testament
housed at the University of Cambridge library.

The CBF Gypsy team projects that scanning the existing Old Testament
into a computer can begin in November, Thomas said. "After that, it
can be proofread and printed." Missionary Keith Holmes, a member of
the CBF Gypsy team, has already experimented successfully with scanning
some chapters.

"We initially thought that we would need to type this manually
and volunteers from CBF South Carolina have already signed up to do the
job." Thomas said "Now, by scanning it, we can save months in
delays and also cut costs."

"Though few funds are currently allotted to this project, we feel
that once the word is out interest will grow and the necessary resources
will be found," Thomas said.

"This is another turning point in sharing the Gospel with the Gypsy
people of the world. Now, when people ask, 'When can we have the rest of
the Bible in our language?' we can say, 'Soon, very soon!'"